Chapter 7-3

The club was dark and somehow misty. The only illumination was magical lights pulsing in a variety of colours. The mist wrapped around Milly and Anjanette’s feet as they made their way to the bar. Anjanette was dressed in her best bar-hopping outfit, a black leather dream that clung tightly to her body. Milly didn’t have a best clubbing outfit, but she had at least been persuaded to leave her cloak at the inn.

They took a seat at the bar. Milly slouched in her seat, her face hiding in her ratty black hair. “Get me some dwarven lager,” ordered Anjanette. The bartender, a burly bored-looking man, plopped down a frothing mug of spirits. Anjanette took a ravenous gulp out of it.

“Aren’t you gonna order a drink, Milly?” she asked.

“Um, I don’t really drink,” Milly said.

“Bullcrap. Get my girl here some ale too.” The bartender shrugged and gave Mily a mug. She demurely took a sip, forcing down the bitter brew. She didn’t want to seem like a kid, after all. This was perfectly normal.

Anjanette pointed to a set of guys sitting at the other end of the bar. The usual young-warrior types, with short haircuts and cocky swaggers. Trying to differentiate between them was like a spot-the-difference game one might give to a child, if one were being particularly cruel.

“What do you think of those guys?” Anjanette asked.

“Um? Well, I haven’t met them...” Milly said.

“On a scale of one to ten.”

“Oh jeez, I don’t know... I don’t really have the right, I think. Everyone has their own tastes and there’s more than meets the eye, of course...”

“One. To. Ten.”

“Um... a seven?” Milly said.

“I’d say a six,” said Anjanette, taking a swig of her ale. “I’m just trying to figure out your taste in guys, Milly.”

Milly blushed. “Um... I guess I’d like a hero. You know, like in the stories.”

Anjanette snorted. “If you’re waiting for a hero, girl, you’ll be waiting a long time.”

They weren’t there long before a man sat down beside Anjanette. He was big and burly, and took great measures to flaunt it. He spoke in native Kendran, an ugly language that flowed in stops and starts.

“Nn hanaketat Kendrant,” said Anjantte, the only Kendran phrase she knew.

The man paused, obviously recalling dusty memories of elementary-school Imperial lessons. “Buy drink to you?”

“Knock yourself out,” Anjanette said offhand. And so it began.

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Chapter 7-2

“Okay, we can go through,” Anjanette said, nearly skipping.

“Never met a problem you couldn’t sleep with, huh?” said Leonas.

Anjanette’s face curled up like she had just eaten sour fruit. “Him? No way. I just showed him an episode of Noble and Beautiful. He got hooked. Everyone does.”

“I didn’t,” said Milly and Leonas in unison.

“That’s because you guys are no fun,” she teased. “Anyway, it turns out they don’t have such ‘blatant aristocratic propaganda’ in Kendran because of some sort of trade embargo. So I sold him the entire backlog I have in exchange for these.” Anjanette dug three visitor’s IDs out of her purse, each one reading “HONOURED GUEST”. “These babies mean we can enjoy all the fruits of the great People’s Republic of Kendran. Everything to us according to our needs, nothing from us but some soap ilscs.”

“Wow, good job,” marvelled Milly.

“I almost don’t hate that show anymore,” Leonas admitted. “So, shall we get going?”
“Well, if we don’t then the merchants behind us may start throwing things,” said Anjanette. They headed off towards Barret, strolling under a peaceful red sky.

* * *

“I’m bored,” Anjanete said, staring up at the brick ceiling of the inn. “Bored bored bored bored bored.”

“Observe, the perpetual three-year-old,” said Leonas.

“Oh, go fuck yourself,” teased Anjanette. “There’s nothing to do in this town, and we’ve been travelling for way too long. Not to mention I just sold all my soaps. This sucks.”

Milly poked her head out from a treatise on illusory magic. “If you’re that bored I have plenty of interesting books—“

“No,” Anjanette said automatically. She continued to lie on the bed, staring at the ceiling while occasionally fixing her hair, until the proverbial torch lit over her head. “I’ve got it! Let’s go guy-hunting!”

“That sounds like a terrible idea,” said Leonas. “Count me in.”

“Um, you guys have fun,” said Milly. “I’ve got a bunch of stuff to read, and I’ve got this essay on Mial I promised to [i]Aokian Literature Monthly.[/i]”

Anjanette was suddenly a whirling dervish, an unstoppable object of enthusiasm. “Bullcrap. Come on out with us Milly, it’ll be fun.”

“No, it’s really not my thing,” Milly refused.

Anjanette snatched Milly’s book away from her and tossed it aside. She hauled the protesting girl up to her feet. “You made me lose my page!”

“You’re coming out with us,” Anjanette insisted. “Just give it a chance.”

“I guess you won’t take no for an answer,” said Milly with a sigh of resignation. “I’ll go.”

Anjanette smiled a predator’s smile. “See? I always get my way.”

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Chapter 7-1

Impromptu hiatus over, now let's get back on with the story.

With the excitement of Nariev behind them, the trio began the long journey of walking their way across the Dutchies. They managed to get some normal clothes and started scamming again, this time with Milly occasionally taking part. Occasionally she still wondered about the morals of what she was doing, but it was better than starving. With their extensive collection of fake goods gone, they had to resort to old-fashioned confidence tricks.

Milly shrieked as the heavyset man bumped into her, subtlly shoved by Leonas behind him. She dropped the box she was holding to the ground with a shatter of broken glass. “Sorry,” the man muttered.

“My vase!” Milly shrieked. She opened the box. Inside was a chaotic assortment of glass shards, a complex jigsaw puzzle. “I just got this new vase and now it’s ruined! It cost four gold!”

The man shrugged. “Too bad, lady.” He turned and walked away.

“Um... pay it back?” she called after him, but he didn’t stop.

Leonas slapped his forehead. “Milly, for the last time... you have to be more insistent. Don’t let him walk away. Yell and scream, demand money. That’s the way it works.”

“I’m not good at demanding things,” said Milly sheepishly.

“Well, you seem to be good at crying, do that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, nothing,” said Leonas. “Now here comes the next guy. Try again.”

Milly picked up the box of broken glass and waited for the man now turning the corner to be bumped into her.

* * *

The Great Dome of Kendran was always something that Leonas had wanted to see for himself. One of the most elaborate spells ever cast, it formed a large red dome that covered the entirety of the large nation. Nothing got in and out without the Kendrans knowing. It made them nearly impervious to attack, but it also limited any sort of expansion and most trade.

Still, it was physically impressive if nothing else. A foot-thick wall of red lightning, crackling and shining. Beyond it the gates of the border city Barret were red, the air was red – everything coloured as though through a trick lens.
Leonas whistled. “Impressive.”

“Watch out, he’s going into ‘magic nerd’ mode,” Anjanette warned.

Leonas stepped closer to marvel at the barrier, abandoning the traffic on the trade road. He got as close as he could without being fried by the magical energy. Besides him, merchant carts moved through a room-sized gap in the barrier, at a speed easily beat by the last bit of syrup in the jar.

Finally, their group of three horses reached the gate. They were immediately greeted by two uniformed guards and what looked to be an official of some kind. His mustache and big nose made him look like an editorial caricature of a Kendran communist.

“And what is your business in Kendran?” asked the official.

“Questing,” said Anjanette.

“That is strictly forbidden,” the official said, his voice ringing with haughty indignance. “You shall not rob the graves of our great culture, simply for your own greed.”

“Aw, come on,” said Leonas. “What’s the harm in letting a few people in? We just want to sample this great nation. We may come back to live here, who knows?”

The official looked like he would be more enthused with the plague coming to his country. “You can absolutely not go in. Resources are stretched enough without foreign freeloaders. Go back to whatever slum you came from.”

Anjanette tensed her fist, and swung back. Leonas waited for an international incident, but Anjanette stopped just in time and put on a brave smile. “Can I talk to you in private?”

The official looked Anjanette up and down. She may have lost her clothes in prison, but it hadn’t taken her long to assemble a suitable skimpy outfit. “I can’t see the harm. You two wait outside.”

Anjanette and the mousy official headed to a small building off the side of the road. Behind them a long line of merchant carts groaned at being delayed even more.

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Chapter 6-4

Anjanette had just been woken from her sleep, and was very cranky. When the door opened and Leonas was standing their, smiling cockily, her anger melted. “Leo? What the hell?”

“I prefer to be adressed as ‘your savior’,” said Leonas.

Anjanette gave him a deep hug, while Milly just stared at him, blinking sleep out of her eyes.

“Hey, the women’s prison is nice,” said Leonas, taking a look at their cell with an appraising eye.

“Can we just get out of here?” Anjanette said.

“No patience,” Leonas said, shaking his head.

Anjanette and Milly left their cell quietly. It was just then that Milly noticed the two guards, a man and a woman, standing nervously at the end of a hallway.

“Who are they?” she asked.

“Well, the man is my good buddy Mister Peral—“

“He’s blackmailing me into letting you out,” Peral said with a sigh.

The woman stared daggers at Peral. “And I happen to owe him five gold from way back when, so this is my way of paying it off.”

“What’s that noise,” Anjanette asked, straining her ears.

“Er, we sort of started a riot at the men’s prison,” said Leonas. “One of them started yelling to be let out too and...”

“I am so getting fired,” Peral said.

The trio left through the back door, being very quiet so as not to spark a second riot. They moved on foot, not having time to go back for their horses, if they were even still there, or alive. With all the guards trying to subdue the riot, nobody noticed a man and two women in prison garb slipping through the alleys and out into the wilderness.

“I’m an escaped convict,” Milly whispered to herself. “I’m a wanted criminal. I’m a fugitive.” No matter which words she used, it still seemed unreal and horrifying at the same time.

“Well, at least that mess is over with,” said Anjanette. “Where to next, o savior?”

“We’re going to the Dutchy of Adamle,” Leonas explained. “They have no extradition treaty with the AOK ever since the Aokian President snubbed the Duke. Apparently the Duke used to write him letters daily, under the illusion that they were great pals, and the President just stopped responding. Ah, nobility.”

Anjanette chuckled. “I’m just pissed off that I lost all the clothes I worked so hard to steal.”

Milly paused again, frozen with horror. “My... books...”

“Pardon?” said Leonas.

“They took my cloak, and all the books were in that!” Milly shrieked. “We have to go back!”

“No way, freak,” said Anjanette. “We can’t walk back into the city.”

“You don’t understand, I’ve spent so much time gathering that collection, and there are so many great books and one I might not be able to find again and if I don’t have them I have to start at square one and oh god.” Milly dissolved into a sobbing mess.

Leonas looked nonchalant. “What, you mean this thing?” He tossed the folded-up cloak at her, pulling it out from under his shirt. Milly gasped and shrieked in happiness, hugging the cloak to her chest. She tackled Leonas with a forceful bearhug.

“Whoa,” he said, jokingly trying to shove her away. “I had to go back for this. It has the map in it, after all.”

“Thank you...”

Anjanette rolled her eyes. “You didn’t save any of my clothes, did you?”

“Nope. But the jumpsuit looks good on you,” said Leonas.

“Did you at least take the book as well?”

Leonas shook his head. “It wasn’t there. Either it’s sitting in some lockbox, or Valgard took it.”

“I’m going to assume Valgard,” said Milly.

“Alright,” said Anjanette. “It’s his fault that I don’t have my clothes or my sword. Now, let’s find this prick, take back those books, and shove them up his lily-white aristocratic ass.”

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Chapter 6-3

Fresh sunlight shone in through the barred windows. Anjanette lay in bed, Milly silently in position, both awaiting the door to open and them to be whisked away to the prison eatery.

“I really don’t like this plan,” Milly said, her voice muffled by the sheets.

“Don’t worry about it, you barely need to do anything,” Anjanette hissed. “Now keep quiet. I think I hear him coming.”

Anjanette paused and confirmed that yes, there were footsteps nearby, echoing louder and closer down the corridoor. She promptly rolled her head back and began moaning loudly, drawing from her experience with teenage boyfriends. “Oh... ohhh...”

The door swung open with a click and the guard walked in. Anjanette was lying on her bed, volumous breasts exposed, head rolled back in apparent pleasure. Beneath the sheets was a huddled form, head between her legs. Anjanette turned and gave the guard a come-hither look. “Oh, hey there. Want to—“

She trailed off as she saw the very confused, very female guard.

“Um... you wouldn’t happen to be a dyke, by any chance?”

The guard shook her head.

“Shit. That sort of ruins my plan,” said Anjanette.

“Let me guess,” said the guard. “You were planning on a male guard, who would let his guard down when offered a hot prison threesome, and then take him out so you could escape?”

“Pretty much.”

“People try that all the time. Honestly, why would a guy be a guard at a women’s prison?” The guard just looked bored.

Anjanette looked a little embarassed. The guard shrugged. “Well, I won’t interrupt you guys.” She turned and slammed the door shut behind them.

“Wait!” Anjanette called after her. “Don’t we get food?”

Milly rolled out from under the sheets, huddled in a ball. “Never... again...”

* * *

Leonas made his move on the way back from mess hall, the day before their trial.

“So Peral,” he said to the guard escorting him. “You mind springing me and some friends tonight?”

“What?” the guard asked.

“Jacob Peral, right? I’ve read all the love letters you get from that girl. You really shouldn’t leave them around.”

Peral blushed. “So what?”

“Well, that girl is not your wife, is she?” Leonas said in a sing-song voice.

“Um...”

Leonas smirked. “Exactly. And I do get a regular amount of songbirds in prison, so let’s just say I would be remiss in my moral duties were I not to inform the dear Missus Peral... unless, say, you helped me out tonight.”

“Yeah, well maybe you’ll meet an unfortunate accident tonight,” said Peral.

“To be quite honest, you’re not smart enough to cover up a murder,” said Leonas.

A long pause. “You want to bet?”

“I have friends in high places, and I’ve already sent a message to one of them, implicating you in anything that goes wrong,” Leonas said. It was perhaps an exagerration to say that Pericen lived in ‘high places’, but he would be good enough. “Seriously, don’t get caught and nothing else goes wrong.”

Another pause, and a heavy breath. “Alright, you win, faggot.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

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Chapter 6-2

Leonas was, quite simply, bored out of his mind. They had put Milly and Anjanette in the other wing of the jail, and he was stuck with a dozing drunk in the temporary holding cells. He stared at the plain white walls, and sometimes through the grate in the door through to the plain white walls in the hallway. If nothing else he had variety.

He paced the room. For the thousandth time he tried to conjure up some magic – telekinesis to grab the guard’s keys, some sort of teleportation – but he always hit a wall. Leonas had heard that most of the big cities had anti-magic areas for prisons and government buildings. He guessed this was one of them. It felt eerie, vaguely inhuman, like a room with just too little air.

Leonas was worried about Anjanette. And Milly too, he realized. They wouldn’t survive in jail. He knew how to keep a low profile, and perhaps more importanly, how to suck a dick. But Milly seemed frightened of talking to her own shadow, and Anjanette eternally refused to shut up.

They needed to get out.

His mind raced in circles.

* * *

Valgard had won the auction, of course. He had the entirety of Alleria’s coffers behind him. His father, King Damien, had explicitly told him to use any and all of the nation’s resources on this quest. But it didn’t take all of Alleria’s coffers, once he had Milly and her group arrested. Nobody else was bidding against him.

Linnar bowed to him, his golden armour flashing light in his eyes. “Sir, we have consulted the prophecies, and we believe the next location to be the tomb of Inias Grunwald, the famous Tiger of the Kendrans. When shall we set off?”

“Tomorrow,” decided Valgard. “I want to take in the city tonight. Let’s see how the AOK treats royalty.”

They had come as soon as word spread of his dramatic intervention at the auction. Minor politicians, clerks and aristocrats, all welcoming him to their great city. Valgard despised them so. A common man selected his ruler not by merit or distinction, but by who had prostrated themselves before his class or group the most. Thus you had a nation ruled by spineless demogouges. Democracy, in Valgard’s experience, was sung in soprano.

He had been given an invitation to dinner with the Head Councillor, but it had been delivered by one of his lackeys. Fitting for an artist or merchant, but to a member of the purest bloodline in the world, it was an insult. He might go someplace else instead.

Valgard took a look out the window of his penthouse suite. Down on the street the Aokians hustled and bustled, going on with their daily lives. The women showed far too much flesh, and the men were far too vulgar. They cared for nothing but themselves, cared nothing for their country or honour or God. It was not like this in Alleria.

It reminded Valgard of why he needed to succeed. When Alleria was ascendant again, when the Golden Kingdom once again stretched from coast to coast, the streets would not be full of whores and brutes. Honour and dignity would be restored.

He would restore the world.

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Chapter 6-1

Milly had sort of hoped they’d end up in a stony cell, one wall only steel bars, with guards pacing outside. The rest of the cell would consist of a single well-worn cot, and a barred window up high. It was always night. That was how it always was in the stories.

The jail they wound up in dashed her hopes quite well. It really just looked like a cheap inn room – drab white walls, a locked door, and a cheap bathroom. The window was barred, sure, but that was common to any inn whose windows had been broken more than once. And the beds, well, they weren’t uncomfortable at all.

“Well this is just great,” Anjanette said, laying on the bed. “Arrested, and we didn’t even scam anyone here. How did that happen?”

“Well, you did steal from all those stores...” Milly said.

“It was just a dress or two! Who’s gonna care, I thought.”

Milly didn’t feel like talking to Anjanette right now. She rolled over, facing the institutionally blank wall. It wasn’t fair. She hadn’t done anything wrong, had she? Now she was in jail. And if they found her guilty, they could sentance her for five, ten, fifteen years... who knew? She would be staying here, trapped inside while the world went on, no books, no quests...

She was crying. And not soft, dignified crying, but loud, infantile, body-wracking sobs. There was no getting out of this one. She felt like a little kid again, except without mommy nearby to grab onto.

Someone was shaking her. Anjanette. “Cut that out, I’m trying to get some sleep.” Her voice was wavering. Milly clutched at Anjanette, burying her head in her chest.

Anjanette was for once unsure of what to say. “Um... there, there?” She petted Milly’s black hair, still greasy with battle sweat, like she would a cat’s fur.

“And Valgard... I can’t believe he would do that... he seemed so nice...” she blubbered.

“Wait, what now?” asked Anjanette.

“Valgard... the man who was bidding against us...” And then the story came out in a jerky torrent, of her meeting with him and his eventual betrayal.

Anjantte took a minute to take it all in, then punched Milly square in the jaw.

“What was that for?” said Milly. She had fallen to the ground and was rubbing her jaw. At least she wasn’t crying any more.

“You told some guy about what we do? What were you thinking?!”

“I... I didn’t think it was a big secret,” said Milly.

“Well we are doing illegal crap... and this guy knew our names and everything. Who was he anyways?”

“I dunno...” Milly said, chewing at her fingernails. She felt like shit. They were doomed and it was her fault. Why had she trusted him anyway? She knew why: Valgard was a man who treated her like a lady, instead of a freak. Milly didn’t talk to a lot of guys, and all the ones she did were only interested in sex and money. But Valgard was a man – a handsome man – who was interested in books and the world and other such interesting things. She had only talked to him for maybe an hour, but she had entertained fancies of falling in love with him.

It was all intentional on his part. If this had been a novel, Milly would have been yelling at the heroine through the whole thing. But she missed it. Valgard had used her... but why?

Surprisingly, the pieces fell into place for Anjanette first. “Prince Valgard de Competain.”

“What?”

“The prince of Alleria. Doesn’t he look like that? And have that name?”

“Um... I don’t know, I haven’t read too much on him...”

“My mom always used to buy tabloids about the royals,” said Anjanette. “I would read through them when there was absolutely nothing better to do, which was frequently and I remember the second son of the king was named Valgard and looked like your Mr. Right.”

Milly nodded. “That would explain those guards... The Golden Shield! Of course!”

“Huh?”

“The twelve highest knights in Alleria,” said Milly. “Sworn to protect the royal family, known for their golden armour and inhuman skill in combat. They always show up in the old stories. They’ve declined a bit in recent years, but they’re still a big deal to Allerians. They must have been the guys that jumped us.”

“So... this guy is an Allerian prince, right?”

Milly nodded, her expression suddenly a grin. “Right! I don’t know why I didn’t connect the dots sooner. And he was bidding for that book, so I assume he’s after the tomes as well... but why? He certainly doesn’t need the money.”

Anjanette chortled. “For someone who reads so much you can be pretty dumb sometimes, Milly.”

“Huh?” Milly’s face flushed with offense. “What do you mean?”

“If this prince guy is going around with these super-knights to chase the books... odds are he’s not doing it for kicks. Alleria wants the tomes. They need the power to be strong again. They want to start a war.”

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